Picture Of Afghan Refugee Mistaken For Amitabh Bachchan From Thugs Of Hindostan

It is not every day that you have an epic in the making with the choicest pick of stars from the industry. So Thugs of Hindostan -- starring Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh – is the centre of a lot of speculation. The looks of the four stars are awaited and every scrap of information that lands goes viral almost instantaneously.

So, on a day that Amitabh Bachchan’s fans got to know that their favourite actor was unwell and was under the supervision of a team of doctors from Mumbai, they also saw a picture of the actor ostensibly dressed in the Thugs of Hindostan look on social media. What helped the picture gain virality was a statement by Jaya Bachchan that Big B’s ill health was due to the heavy costume he is donning for the film. “Amitji is fine. He has pain in the back and neck... The costumes are very heavy, so there’s some pain, otherwise he is fine,” she told reporters outside Parliament.

By this time, fans were busy sharing the photo on internet. Alas, the photo was not that of Big B but an Afghan refugee, which has been attributed to photographer Steve McCurry. Last year, the photographer posted the picture on his Instagram account and wrote, “I made this portrait of Shabuz, age 68, an Afghan refugee in Pakistan. Many Afghans use only one name.” The account is not verified.

Yesterday, the 75-year-old actor’s cryptic blog post on getting his doctors from Mumbai to “fiddle around” with his body had sparked worries about his health.

“I am getting my team of Doctors in tomorrow morning to fiddle around with my body and set me up again... I will rest and keep informed in process,” Bachchan, who is in the city to shoot for Thugs of Hindostan wrote in his blog.

Bachchan today again took to his blog and other social media accounts to give a health update. In a poetic post in Hindi the actor said he was not feeling well and had to call his doctors for the treatment, but now he is doing fine.